Next phase of subscription transition announced

[Richard Doll]

Dear Community Members, 

Following my recent Graphisoft Insights post on the Subscription transition update, we know how important this topic is for you as our clients and anticipate your comments and questions. To streamline communication, we’ve created this thread to gather everything in one place. We’ll also use it to identify topics that may need further clarification, which we’ll address on our FAQ page.

Please note that while we cannot respond to individual questions in the forum, your local representative is available for personalized support.

Best regards,
Richard

Link to Insights article: https://community.graphisoft.com/t5/Graphisoft-Insights/Important-update-Next-phase-of-subscription-...

[Eric Milberger]

Actually not very difficult to transition.  Just finished several large projects in Revit.  Not much different than using Archicad nor AECOsim

I like certain features of Bentley, and certain features in Archicad and the same for Revit.

The nicest thing about Revit is I no longer make converted files for my engineers as there are non-existant in the Arcicad world and almost the same with Bentley Aecosim.  I think the better investment is the U.S. is Revit as everyone uses it and clients mandate it and you save so much time.  Yes Archicad has some nice features but they are not customer focused an believe they are so superior.  Snotty.

Last Month bought a 3 year copy of 2 license from Autodesk for roughly $200  and have already created my drawings.  All three packages are so familiar it is pretty easy to change.

[Msilva]

In Norway the local reseller wants us to convert our licenses with a 3 year binding contract that renews for 3 new years and we cannot reduce the number og licenses. This is the worst exemple og subscription i´ve ever seen, no flexibility at all, why are we going subscription if there is no flexibility?

Building Materials, Graphic Overrides and Design Options are amazing improvements from the last 10 years, but lately I don´t feel Archicad is made by architects for architects.

We are not converting. Let the countdown start. We will wait and see.

[jl_lt]

ahh the by architects for architects slogan.  sometimes, the mere thought of some archictects messing around with archicad's source code keeps me up at night

[Burak]

The community just wants back perpetual licences.

Give us the option to choose between a perpetual license and a subscription.

There isn’t a mountain of difference between Archicad 25 and 29. Most of the updates and new features are aimed at niche users. For example, users who have established their own workflow and system for years can already produce and present their projects without ‘design options,’ even though it is indeed a useful feature…

For years, Archicad has been promoted as ‘next year will be amazing,’ yet with every new release, the user base becomes a bit more pessimistic. On top of that, treating users as an ATM seems to be the final straw. The perpetual-license users around me are absolutely not considering switching to the subscription model, especially since the latest versions over the past few years have failed to meet expectations.

I sincerely advise you to abandon this capitalism-driven management approach that blinds you, before it’s too late. Losing a large portion of this supposedly ‘very loyal’ community in just a few years will not be worth it.

[Bricklyne Clarence]

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@Burak wrote:

The community just wants back perpetual licences.

Give us the option to choose between a perpetual license and a subscription.

There isn’t a mountain of difference between Archicad 25 and 29. Most of the updates and new features are aimed at niche users. For example, users who have established their own workflow and system for years can already produce and present their projects without ‘design options,’ even though it is indeed a useful feature…

For years, Archicad has been promoted as ‘next year will be amazing,’ yet with every new release, the user base becomes a bit more pessimistic. On top of that, treating users as an ATM seems to be the final straw. The perpetual-license users around me are absolutely not considering switching to the subscription model, especially since the latest versions over the past few years have failed to meet expectations.

I sincerely advise you to abandon this capitalism-driven management approach that blinds you, before it’s too late. Losing a large portion of this supposedly ‘very loyal’ community in just a few years will not be worth it.

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This seems to be standard practice for them nowadays.

Release a new feature or tool decades after users have been requesting it, and during which time most just develop their own workflows and workarounds around not having that functionality available to them that by the time Graphisoft get off their lazy behinds on to addressing the issue and releasing their version of the tool, it's mostly useless and unecessary for most.  And also because at the time of release most of these tools are clunky, poorly tested and poorly sourced for ideas and feedback during development, that they're functionally mostly useless and unusable (or don't work the way we would really need them to). And by the time they get around to addressing the issues, you'll be lucky if you're only 3 or 4 hotfixes in, but more likely they won't get to it until the next version release (.....again....if you're lucky. Most likely they just forget about it and move on to their next shiny toy)

And then they wonder why users on perpetual license don't want to renew their licenses every year with every new release that offers less and less, while they continue to ignore users and treat them only as you correctly put it, as ATM machines for "free" revenue.

Here in the real world where we have to deal with real costs and real consequences, you have to see a tangible and acceptable return on your investment, otherwise you don't keep on investing.

They seem to operate in a dreamland where you can waste resources developing stuff that no one asked for, and then put your hand out demanding more money to spend on even more unrequested stuff.

And then when that fails, you try to force everyone to hand over money anyway through a Subscription-only model.

With nothing to show for or justify going such a route.

But the at their 'IGNITE' conferences and whatever they'll insist they're a "user-feedback" driven  company and put users' needs and requests first.

Ridiculous!

Someone or someones over there at HQ, have been getting a little too high on their own supply (.....of bs.)

[Steve Jepson]

True.  I am just fine to stay with 25.  I am retireing soon. First SS Check comes in January 🙂   I made it.  30+ Years using ArchiCAD.

Bought a motorcycle.  No more worries about ArchiCAD bugs.  2011 Triumph Thunderbird 1600 with only (38) miles on it.   Better than new.  Still breaking it in slow and easy.  Should be ready to ride like I stole it in the spring. 

[StefanV_BCP]

Can somebody give me a simple answer?
What is the latest version for users who don't want to commit to a subscription model, coming from SSA/Forward?

I am getting information that the latest version depends on when your contract ends. Does this mean that users whose contracts run until the end of the year will get version 30, while users whose contracts expired before the release of version 30 will only get version 29? How in the world is that possible? This sounds very odd.

Can somebody clarify this?

Cheers

[Barry Kelly]

You will have to talk to the people you pay your subscription to.

Only they can tell you what they are prepared to do.

It would be very nice if we were allowed to upgrade to the last perpetual license still.

I can't say from personal experience because my company switched to the subscription licensing when our SSA contract expired.

Barry.

[StefanV_BCP]

Thank you, Barry, for the answer.

But I would like to hear from the community if somebody has similar information, just for a comparison.

Because, as I remember, it was officially stated that the last version for perpetual users with SSA/Forward would be AC30.

[Florin Luca]

My rep here in Boston told me the same thing: version 29 would be my perpetual version, not 30. My SSA/Forward was due this month. Offered me a subscription locked in for three years at a bit less then what my SSA payment was last year. I haven't decided yet.

The subscription model irks me to no end. True, the yearly SSA amounted somewhat to a subscription, but at least I got to keep the latest version that I paid for.

I know you all know this, but a lot of the discussions here were focused on how much subscription costs and what version do we get to keep. Yes, we don't have much say and we're venting, I get it!

How about a subscription based on the car leasing? Subscribe for X number of years, pay a residual at the end and keep the last version available at that time. Other than pure greed, why wouldn't that work? It would give us control of our models, not just some dead pdfs.

Anyway, my two cents, as it seems I have too much time on my hands this glorious Tuesday morning!:)